Day: 12 (Lumut - Pantai Remis)

Left Lumut at 5:30 this morning. Well, for those of you who has been following our journey, I know this must has been the latest morning kick start for us, apart from the flag off day. Broom! Broom!

The reason why we have delayed our journey this morning was because we were afraid that we might have to wait for quite a long while for the turtle sanctuary to open, @ 10AM. This morning we have a new Sun-Chaser team member, Wong Ling Gau who based in Ipoh has joined us in the ride. He arrived at our hotel right after 11 o’clock last night.

As our welcome ceremony, I would normally get the most junior rider in the team, in term of duration with us in the ride, to handover the new rider our Sun-Chaser’s kit. Our kit consists of a simple towel, a pair of hand glove, jerseys, security vest, arm ‘sun-protection’ cover, socks and hat (if required) and sun-block, plus a little orientation.

This morning we had the honored of Kevin Charley to handover the Sun-Chaser’s kit to Wong Ling Gau. The journey was rather easy on a flat coconut plantation and coastal area. We arrived at Segari town exactly at 7.40 AM, after a 30 KM + journey and stopped for breakfast.

Spent about 20 minutes in a local coffee shop. There were quite a few of people interested and wanted us to share our experience. We managed to take few photographs with them before we continued with our journey to the turtle sanctuary which was about 2 or 3 km only.

On our way to the Turtle Management Centre (Pusat Pengurusan Penyu) in Pasir Panjang, Segari, suddenly I thought we were swamped by bees and after taken a closer look Kevin and I confirmed they were only flies, luckily!. As we peddled deeper and deeper into the narrow estate road then we saw many chicken farms in that area and that explained why there were so many flies.

We arrived at the Turtle Management Centre early, at 9AM and both Pakcik Ariffin and Pakcik Tan Sri were very friendly and allowed us to visit the place. The Turtle Management Centre here was so much bigger than the one we visited in Pengkalan Balak. The centre and the one in Malacca was well organized, too and it’s definitely a place worth visiting especially for school children, an education and public awareness centre.

While we were checking out the turtle hatchery area at the far end of the centre suddenly we saw a wild cat walking through the compound. According to Pakcik Ariffin, he hasn’t seen one in the area for few years now and also said our presence has brought the cat there again. A good or a bad sign?

We spent about half an hour in the centre and took few photographs before we hit the road again. At 10:54 AM after 55 KM+ trishaw ride, we reached Pantai Remis town. It’s a small fishing village. We decided to have a short water break at a coconut stall by the road side / bus-stop. Ordered some fried banana ’pisang goreng’ too and seriously, wonder where else in Malaysia can we still find a 10 fried bananas for RM 1?

During this time while we were enjoying the fresh coconut juice and fried banana my hometown buddies, Rimsom Gan and Patrick Hee Ho Meng came to meet us there. Rimson will be fetching Kevin Charley to the KLIA airport tomorrow morning at 2 AM while Partick Hee will be joining the Sun- Chaser team til this Saturday.

Wei Peng has decided to go for a dentist check-up, finally after persuaded him to go and check far too many times. Well, during this time when he’s away that’s when we have decided to stay overnight at this small town. We became very friendly with Abang Lee, the coconut stall owner. He has somehow or rather managed to convince us to stay in Pantai Remis.

We went to book for a hotel room, then Kevin Charley and I went to the Pantai Remis police station, for our log journey time-stamped. We went to the new police station but it was empty (under final inspection) and the security guard guided us to the current operating police station.

Wei Peng came back to our hotel at around 1:50 PM because of the long queue. He hasn’t got any appointment so he has to wait. Then together all of us went to have our lunch.

At around 4.30 PM Abang Lee came to our hotel to meet us. We have made plan to go to a waterfall area in Trong together with him. The place that we went to was called, ’ Kawasan Perkhemahan Hutan Lipur, Sungai Nyior, Trong, Perak’. Well, if you wish to go there, only local knowledge can guide you there because the waterfall area was rather deep in passing through an estate area.

Well, I hope Kevin Charley will find this journey with us the past 7 days a memorable one. When I told him about this journey initially, I managed to convince and sold him the whole 'special' visit Malaysia package minus the weather. He! He! The weather was a little too much for him at the final day. The only complaint he made was having different male roommates everyday He! He! He! Only joking!

Yah man Frankie, did Hee-Man ask you to carry his bag, or worse, did he pay you to carry his bag? By the way Peng-Yu, your writing seems familiar and you seem to know a lot about the under-the-bridge spot!! Chai yu and enjoy your time at Langkawi! You will love Langkawi - plenty to do, sight-seeing that is!!!.